Turn A Gundam

Turn A Turn! Turn A Turn! Turn AAAAAA!

The white wings of moon butterflies
 Flicker down the streets of the city,
 Blushing into silence the useless wicks of sound-lanterns in the hands of girls.

—H.P. Lovecraft, Poetry Of The Gods

∀ Gundam (pronounced "Turn A Gundam") premiered in Japan in 1999 and is an Alternate Universe of the Gundam meta-series.[1] It's notable as the last Gundam work by creator Yoshiyuki Tomino, his first outside the Universal Century timeline begun by the original series, and arguably one of his best efforts. It also came after he finally won his years-long battle with depression, thus rather stunningly averting his Kill'Em All reputation.

In the Correct Century, the people of Earth are living in a world roughly at the turn of the 19th century. What they do not know, however, is that they are not the first incarnation of mankind. Far in the past, there were humans living on the moon who, after a great catastrophe, were forced to go into cryo-stasis and await the time when it is safe to return to the Earth. In the meantime, they occasionally send scouts to the Earth to see if it has returned to a state where people can live on its surface once more. Among these scouts is a young boy named Loran Cehack.

At the start of the series, the people of the moon (descriptively dubbed "The Moonrace") decide that they and their superior technology wish to return to the open air and full gravity of Earth. This understandably leads to some confrontation with the people already there. Loran, who had been living on Earth a few years ahead of time, has grown attached to the people there and after Falling Into the Cockpit of a mobile suit that has been buried in the earth for millennia, proceeds to defend the aristocratic families of of the Kingdom of Bostonia as tensions build between Earth and the Moonrace, and the threat of war spirals ever higher.

On January 2, 2012, Bandai Entertainment announced that a supposed release for Fall 2011 (confirmed at Comic-Con 2010) was canceled along with all their other new releases for the North American market, while the company went through a re-structuring process.

After years of No Export for You, Right Stuff Inc. finally released the series in America on June 2015.[2][3]

Tropes used in Turn A Gundam include:

(Three tropes from this page were listed at random by Bandai Entertainment for their licensing announcement in 2010 - the listed tropes have been bolded for your convenience.)

  • Action Girl: Sochie Heim, Poe Aijee.
  • After the End: If you believe the backstory, there's actually been quite a few.
  • Ambiguously Brown: Rolan, Miashei and Guin Lineford.
    • Many of the background characters are like this too, probably as a result of all the intermarriage that happens in ten thousand years.
  • And I Must Scream: A Fridge Horror version of Gym's ultimate fate. According to supplementary materials, the Turn A, and presumably the Turn X, are capable of regenerating themselves and their pilot inevitably. Given that the Moonlight Butterfly is just an extension of the Turn units' nanomachines, there is every reason to believe that Gym will be trapped in the Moonlight Butterfly's cocoon, fully conscious, for all time.
  • And Man Grew Proud / Future Imperfect: On Earth, much of what's known about the Black History (or the pre-CC past in general) come from old legends and whatever could be scrounged from archaeological finds until the real truth is revealed. Though given what the Moonlight Butterfly apocalypse did, it's very much justified.
  • Anyone Can Die: It may not be a Kill'Em All series, but come on, who expected Gavan Gooney to go out in a nuclear bang midseries?
  • Armchair Military: A good chunk of the Moonrace's military forces (particularly Gym's faction) don't actually have any actual combat experience outside of simulations. As a result, they have no idea how war is really like, let alone how to wage a real one.
  • Artistic License Geography: This map places many of the important landmarks much farther apart from each other than they seem in the show. For example, Vicinity and the Mountain Cycle are close enough for young people to travel there on foot in one night, but on the map they're in central Jersey and West Virginia.
  • Ascended Fanboy: Gym, of all people. He finally gets to wage a war and give meaning to his life as a soldier. After playing wargames for 2000 years.
    • This may also be a tongue-in-cheek reference to his voice actor, who was a long time Gundam fan before landing various roles in the franchise.
  • Badass: Harry Ord by way of being an Ace Pilot.
  • Berserk Button: Corin Nander does not like Gundams.
    • Super Robot Wars expands this: he doesn't like white Gundams. Other colors, like red and blue (from Gundam X), he doesn't care about.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Loran does this for the Militia very often. Harry Ord pulls it off a few times too.
  • Blind Idiot Translation: One of the songs is named "Puff The Pussy Puzzle".
    • Subverted in the case of the "mountain cycles." While one may think that "silo" was intended rather than "cycle," it refers to the act of digging up and using weapons used in past wars as a vicious cycle.
  • Bloodless Carnage: Not that there's much carnage to speak of, but when there is, it's usually this.
  • Blood Knight: Big Bad Gym Ghingnham and his minions.
  • Bodyguard Crush: Harry, on Kihel.
  • Break Out the Museum Piece: The eponymous Gundam and other mobile suits that are dug out of mountain cycles.
    • Loran tries to do this with the weapons cache that came with the White Doll, but they're so old and ravaged by nanomachines that only one of them works.
  • Bunny Ears Lawyer: Corin Nander is pretty loony and at the same time one of the first opponents Loran faced that gave him serious trouble. He's not charming or evil enough for Affably Evil or similar tropes.
  • Butterfly of Death and Rebirth: The Moonlight Butterfly, which has the power to destroy all technology, and essentially cause an apocalypse, forcing the reconstruction of human civilization. It took millenia for humanity to get back on its feet after that. The quote at the top of the page is extremely appropriate after this is revealed.
  • Chastity Couple: Loran & Dianna.
  • Char Clone: Well, duh. Harry Ord.
  • Chekhov's Gundam: The Turn-A Gundam itself. It's the first mecha excavated, but soon the series is swimming in old mecha. However every once in a while there will be an indication that there is something different about the Turn-A Gundam. Only as the series nears its end does it truly become an important plot point.
    • The Turn-A Gundam's targeting system. Every time an enemy mecha comes within sight a small window will appear with its name and vital statistics: initially everything Loran fights is unknown. However, when Loran encounters the Turn-X for the first time, the system identifies it right away.
  • Combat Pragmatist: The Militia; they really can't afford to be anything else.
  • Continuity Nod: See Mythology Gag below.
  • Continuity Snarl: I dare you to explain how even though human civilization keeps getting destroyed they keep having New York Cities, Romes and other such places in spite of regular Monumental Damage or how no else noticed the mecha storage units in previous series, or how the word Gundam keeps coming up in every series and everyone acts like they invented the word and SO much more.
  • Cool Shades: Harry Ord
  • Dark-Skinned Blond: Frequent both among the Earthrace and Moonrace. Among the main characters are Guin, Miashei, Keith (more of a dark-skinned redhead), and Loran himself.
    • Loran's coloring is probably symbolic. He's a member of the Moonrace who has lived on Earth for years, feels a sense of loyalty to both sides, and so spends the series trying above all else to help them live in peace. And he has silver/white hair, and brown (earth-tone) skin.
  • David Versus Goliath: The Earthrace militias are at a severe technological disadvantage even after excavating mobile dolls from the Mountain Cycles, apart from the Turn A. And it turns out to be an inversion whenever the Turn A fights anything.
  • Days of Future Past: Why does the post-apocalyptic future look like a cross between The American Civil War & World War I? Maybe those scheming Innocents or Magus were obsessed with old Pre-WWII nostalgia pieces...
    • Justified: the Moonlight Butterfly deployed at the end of the Black History dissolved (most of) the technology on the Earth to dust. Naturally, it takes a while for humanity to get back on its high-tech feet.
    • Apart from the Industrial Neo-Americans, there are Neo-Mayans in Adeska (who worship a mass driver). It's not hard to imagine post-apocalyptic humanity reverting to old cultures.
  • Did Not Get The Guy: Gavan dies halfway through the series and provides angst for Sochie. Then at the end, Loran chooses Dianna (who everyone else thinks is Kihel, including possibly Sochie herself) over Sochie and the last we see of them together is Loran giving her a kiss as she cries. The last scene with Sochie has her throwing Loran's toy fish into the river where they met, screaming in anger. Soundtrack Dissonance to the max.
  • Distant Finale: The show itself is one for several, if not every Gundam timeline.
  • Divided States of America: Well, they do start working together once the Moonrace invasion hits and the Earthlings find out how far behind they are.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: Scheming (though not necessarily outright villainous), technically advanced race comes to a hot, dry place claiming it's the land of their ancestors and they want it back, much to the consternation of the current residents. Hilarity (and sporadic firefights) ensue. Jee, wonder where Tomino got that idea...
    • There's also a reason why many Chinese viewers hate the moonrace.
  • Dropped a Bridget On Him: Harry and "Laura."
  • Dude Looks Like a Lady: Loran's entire crossdressing saga can be attributed to Guin's insistence that he looked and acted more like a Laura.
  • Dynasty Warriors: Gundam: The Turn A and Loran have appeared in all three games, with Gym and the Turn X being added to the second (and the Turn X being promoted to Rank 1 in the third.) Sochie and the Turn A era Kapool also appear in the third game.
  • Dying Moment of Awesome: Otherwise nondescript Moonrace soldier Ralfa fighting off multiple mobile suits so that the Dianna Counter does not get their hands on the nukes he discovered.
  • Easily Forgiven: The Dianna Counter force on Earth is never held to account for its mutiny.
  • Easy Logistics: It isn't elaborated on how the Earth Militia manages to keep their Kapools and Borjanons in working order, despite how maintenance-intensive Capules and Zakus have proven to be in Universal Century. The Turn A and the Turn X handwave this via the use of nanomachines.
  • Empire with a Dark Secret
    • The Moonrace, while not exactly villainous themselves nonetheless have one in hiding the real truth and entirety of the Black History, even from themselves in an attempt to maintain the peaceful status quo and keep mankind's warrior tendencies in check.
    • Though not to the same degree as the Moonrace, the Earth countries aren't entirely without fault given that their leaders had been in secret albeit futile communications with the Moonrace, while the rest of the public is utterly oblivious to the fact that the impending invasion is coming from the Moon.
  • Enemy Mine: Loran and Harry team up when Dianna Counter's forces attack the Willgame excavation site, where Dianna is posing as Kihel, and again when they outright mutiny against Dianna.
  • Everybody Lives: Well, almost everybody. But since this is Tomino we're talking about...
    • A pretty large number of the cast do die, but it's mostly minor characters and a smaller proportion compared to previous Gundam series, due to the very large cast.
  • Evil Chancellor: Agrippa Maintainer. Too bad for him that Gym is his right hand man...
  • Expy: Will Game was modeled after Brad Pitt.
    • Interestingly, the ship named after Will Game resembles A Star Destroyer painted like an A-Wing. Aside from the requisite White Base-class influences like the conning tower-style bridge and rounded yellow external hatches, anyway.
    • Harry Ord is a subversion. While obviously A CHAR, he's different enough that he's his own character and only shares some basic elements from Char.
      • Harry Ord is definitely more a QUATTRO than a CHAR. Obvious jokes aside, he wears shades rather than a mask, and pilots a gold Mobile Suit. Whereas other CHAR characters opted to imitate MSG Char and CCA Char, Harry is one of the few that really takes Zeta Char and runs with it.
  • Fish Out of Water: Subverted with Loran and company when they first arrive on Earth. While they do find everything strange initially, the mere fact that they're provided with appropriate-looking outfits to make themselves fit in better suggests that the Moonrace already has at least some knowledge on what's happening on the ground. After all, they weren't the first ones to make planetfall, what with the Red Team and the first Will Game coming long before them.
  • Flash Step: One of Turn A's abilities. It's actually more like a cloak step--the Gundam briefly becomes invisible, so wherever it appears next is a surprise.
  • Gender Is No Object: Certainly true for the Moonrace. Dianna is the clear political leader, and there are many female pilots and technicians in the military. This is less true of the Earthrace—women can and do join the military, but it's said that they haven't progressed enough to be politically led by "someone in a skirt."
  • Genetic Memory: At one point, Kihel muses that the people on Earth might have residual, instinctual memories of the Black History, which may be why technology hasn't quite caught up. Almost as if there's some kind of mental failsafe to prevent it from happening again. This also may explain however why History Repeats so similarly.
  • Ghibli Hills: No wonder the Moonrace want Earth so badly. Of course, it's been millennia since the Moonlight Butterfly apocalypse.
    • It's implied that Ameria is one of the few places where this is true.
  • Going Native: Loran and quite a number of Moonrace folk undergo this as they adjust to life on Earth. The Red Team had also long undergone this as well, albeit becoming more "tribal" compared to the civilized Earthrace nations.
  • Gorgeous Period Dress: Girls wear these in special occasions.
    • As does Loran/Laura, to great effect.
  • Gory Discretion Shot: Will Game. "I don't think those are anything but hands anymore, Sochie..."
  • Go Out with a Smile: Cancer and Muron spend their last five days having one big party before dying of asphyxiation in orbit. Given the atmosphere within the FLAT, it gives significant potential for Fridge Horror.
  • Government Conspiracy:
    • It's revealed that both the Earthrace nations' high officials and the Moonrace were in secret on-off negotiations for at least some years prior to the invasion. It was when diplomatic attempts fall apart that Dianna Counter forces finally make their move on a populace totally unaware of the Moonrace's existence.
    • The real truth about the Black History was kept hidden by the Moonrace even from themselves, ostensibly as a gesture to never repeat the mistakes of the past.
  • Gray Goo: The Moonlight Butterfly, perfectly capable of spreading its nanomachines a great length (in supplemental materials, all the way from Earth to Jupiter), destroy all technology... and thus cause a Class 1 apocalypse, Societal Collapse included.
  • Guile Hero: The mobile suits used by the Earthrace militia tend to be dated compared to the Moonrace, so they do things like get the Moonrace soldiers drunk or lay black-powder boobie traps first.
  • Gundamjack: There are a couple of instances where the Militia allows Sochie to pilot the Turn A, but Loran does not approve. More dangerously, Teteth Halleh tries to steal it and nearly succeeds.
  • Gundam vs. Series: The Turn A, Turn X, and Sochie's Kapool appear in Gundam vs Gundam NEXT.
    • Extreme Vs includes the Turns, Harry's golden SUMO, and Full Boost will add Corin's Kapool.
  • Hazy Feel Turn: Unusually, this comes about because the setting is so idealistic. Hores and his Moonrace technicians have no qualms about helping the Earthrace excavate and restore the Gallop and Willgame; they're more interested in their work than the conflict.
  • Hidden Elf Village: The Moonrace, after a fashion. Given that most are descended from the remaining Spacenoids whose technological civilization was spared from the same Moonlight Butterfly apocalypse that devastated the Earth.
  • History Repeats: Retroactively applied to the Gundam series as a whole, with everything being mushed into one big timeline that keeps bombing everything back to early post-industrial revolution. The nth earth/Terrans-who-emigrated-generations-ago war is waged this time almost entirely with weapons left over from previous conflicts.
  • Heel Realization: Over the course of the series, Queen Dianna discovers that her policies and army have actually caused quite a bit of suffering.
  • Hey, It's That Voice!: As awesome as Harry Ord is, he does not come with Trombe override.
  • Human Popsicle: Cryostasis is how the Moonrace are able to live for several hundred years. Some have even been in stasis from the Black History, such as Corin Nander being a veteran from the After Colony era.
  • Humans Are Warriors: This is the basis of Gym's beliefs.
  • Humongous Mecha: Turn A Gundam sports some of the franchise's biggest. In particular, the WaDOM is fully twice the size of any other mobile suit mechanical doll, comparable to mobile armors.
    • It also has the smallest mecha in the entire Gundam Franchise, at least among Mobile Suits. The WaD only stands tall enough to reach Turn A's knee. That means the WaD are the same size as an average Knightmare Frame. They're also just as durable.
  • Identical Stranger: Kihel and Dianna. It becomes a major plot point later on.
  • Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Poe for the first half of the series, Corin Nander for a few episodes.
  • Intimate Healing: Harry, on Poe.
  • Karma Houdini: Both Guin Lineford and Merrybell are alive, if not well off, at the end of the series.
  • Kiai: Harry's UNIVEEEEERSEEE!!!!
  • Killed Off for Real: Will Game, Gavanne Goonney, Teteth Halleth, Agrippa Maintainer, Midgard, Corin Nander, Gym.
  • Large Ham: Gym GhingnHAM
    • Really, Takehito Koyasu's performance as Gym must be seen to be believed as the man is clearly having the time of his life chewing the scenery with gems such as the famous "GEKKOUUU CHOUUUUUU DEARU!!" Thanks to this, Gym is considered one of the most enjoyable and entertaining villains to watch simply due to the sheer ham he brings to any scene.
    • Harry Ord has his moments. Like this.
  • Lampshade Hanging: Fans breathed a down-to-earth sigh of relief the first time the Turn A is referred to in-series as "the thing with the mustache," and later on when someone asks, of the Turn X, how an inverted X is any different from a regular X.
  • Latex Space Suit: Loran's pilot suit when he goes into space.
  • Lighter and Softer: Than all of the previous Gundam works done by Tomino.
  • Likes Older Women: Loran for Dianna. Likewise Sochie for Gavane Gooney.
  • Lost Technology: What drives the plot.
  • Lucky Charms Title: ∀ Gundam.
    • Actually subverted - the inverted A symbol was put in the title for a specific reason (see Meaningful Name below.)
  • Lyrical Dissonance: After All, sung by Donna Burke sounds like something out of a Don Bluth or Disney film. The lyrics on the other hand come across as melancholic and a tad apocalyptic for an otherwise wistful song.
  • Mayincatec: Adeska.
  • Meaningful Name: Merrybell Gadget and Dian(n)a.
    • The symbol "Turn A" is a mathmatical symbol meaning "all items in a set". Some assume that this is Tomino's way of bringing all the Gundam series thus far into one universe.
    • The Heim sisters' name is an anagram of hime, Japanese for princess. Additionally, it's pronounced the way somebody unfamiliar with how romanized Japanese words might say it, making it almost an example of Alternate Character Reading, or as close as you can in romaji.
  • Motion Capture Mecha: Parodied by Harry Ord in episode 35. Aboard the Zacktrager, Midgard and Dianna see Harry's SUMO "adjusting" its sleeve as Harry normally does. Dianna mentions that it's one of Harry's bad habits, thinking that it's "dandy," while Midgard says that it's funny for him to make his SUMO do such a thing.
  • Multiple Choice Past: The Turn-X's mysterious origins. It's vaguely implied to have been created by aliens in the series, but the videogame G Generation F seems to indicate that it was a descendant of the Devil Gundam, as the Original Generation unit Devil Gundam Junior bears an uncanny resemblance to it.
  • Mundane Utility: Gundam washing machine! Gundam cow carrier!
    • This becomes especially mundane when you realize that the Turn A was designed to fight against an entire planet's military armed forces. And be expected to win.
  • The Mutiny: Major Phil leads one against Dianna halfway through the series, feeling that she is too weak a leader to properly deal with the resistance on Earth. The fact that Kihel was interfering with more aggressive policy while posing as Dianna contributed to this.
  • Mythology Gag: Probably one of the things this series is most famous for. Hovering between Continuity Nod and Mythology Gag, the entire Black History is everything from Universal Century to After War, and Word of God includes all other Gundam Alternate Universes produced afterward such as SEED, 00, and AGE. This is especially noticeable when the Militia starts digging out Neo Zeon Capules and Zeon Zaku I's and II's.
  • Nanomachines: The Turn A and Turn X use these both for repairing themselves, and as an attack.
  • New Age Retro Hippie: The Red Team resemble this. Apparently, your ancestors getting stranded on Earth does that.
  • New Powers as the Plot Demands: The Turn A itself. Loran suddenly gets a lot more familiar with the features in the last ten or so episodes. Were you expecting the Core Fighter?
  • No Pronunciation Guide: Averted by the show's logo, which appears as the title is being spoken by a Japanese guy you'd swear was British.
  • Nothing Is Scarier: The Earthrace militia aren't put off by the David Versus Goliath nature of their conflict with the Moonrace, but they are so unnerved by space travel that they try to mutiny and bring the Willgame back to Earth.
  • A Nuclear Error: Averted. While nuclear weapons are treated as being at risk of going off by being bumped too hard, this is Truth in Television since it is possible that the warheads seen in the series were impact-fused, or a timer set to an impact fuse; after all, some Real Life nuclear missiles are specifically designed to penetrate bunkers several hundred meters underground, or are impact-fused.
    • Besides, would you want to risk it?
  • Nuclear Weapons Taboo: Explicitly avoided. Some nukes are dug up, and after five kill off Gavan Gooney, Loran hides two inside the Turn A to prevent them from being used until he can properly dispose of them.
    • Both of which he uses to blow something up - though it was an uninhabited falling satellite.
  • Of Corsets Sexy: Kihel dresses Loran up as a girl, then adds a corset for a better effect.
  • Official Couple: Dianna and Loran, Harry and Kihel, Joseph and Fran, Keith and Verlaine.
  • Oh Crap: Midgard gets an absolutely glorious one when the Turn A first uses the Moonlight Butterfly.
    • Everyone who sees the eponymous "sunrise at midnight" in Episode 26 has this reaction.
  • The Ojou: The Heim sisters, though Kihel follows the trope more closely.
    • And then Dianna when she and Kihel switch places.
    • Even Laura pulls this off quite well.
  • Perky Female Minion: Merrybell Gadget to Gym.
  • Poor Communication Kills: Much of the Will Game arc could have been avoided had Dianna been forthcoming about her true identity, though extenuating circumstances did prevent her from doing so.
    • In fact, a lot of the show itself could have been avoided if people listened to other people, both on their side and the opposing side.
  • Proud Warrior Race Guy: Gym Ghingham, the race being Humanity.
  • Ragnarok Proofing: Many of the machines excavated from the various mountain cycles are in perfect working order despite having been buried for millennia. Of course, this is because of the protective coating of nanomachines that they were already covered with. Everything else not protected as such during the Moonlight Butterfly apocalypse, on the other hand...
  • Really Seven Hundred Years Old: Dianna Soreil was in cryogenic storage for a good chunk of time. While she does go in and out of stasis occasionally, she is rather old, as she was able to meet Will Game both the grandfather and grandson.
    • Gym Ghingnham is stated to have been conducting military maneuvers for roughly two thousand years. This is likely an exaggeration, though.
    • Corin Nander was the same, apparently for much much longer than Dianna as he apparently suffered some form of brain damage or other while in stasis. He's been around since the Black History, which occurs at least 2,345 years before the main story takes place. It's implied he's actually the sole survivor of the colony Quatre blew up with Wing Zero during his epic freakout.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: Sochie and Miashei.
  • Reporting Names: In the same context as BattleTech, many Moonrace and some Zeon mecha get different names from Earth troops.
  • The Reveal: The Black History, a.k.a. Mobile Suit Gundam through Gundam X.
  • Rock Beats Laser: Averted. Biplanes and foot soldiers don't do much against Dianna Counter; it's not until the Inglessa milita finds its own mobile suits that they start putting up a decent fight.
  • Royals Who Actually Do Something: Dianna's position is anything but ceremonial—she sets policy and makes the original decision to recolonize Earth. She also does a lot of hands-on work over the course of the series, such as nursing in a military hospital.
    • Lily Borjarno is also a skilled politician who knows how to work an angle and frequently does so.
      • Heck, if we're counting the rich and well-off, Sochie counts, too, as she was a member of the Inglessa Militia before the conflict started.
  • Running Gag: Loran just keeps getting his crotch smashed in early on when Soshi's around. It foreshadows the 'loveless relationship' with Dianna down the line, in a way.
  • Second Hand Storytelling: The end of the Black History, including: The discovery of the Turn-X Gundam, the building of the Turn-A Gundam, and the resulting conflict. Probably impossible to show anyway, since it took place in all of the previous continuities instead of just one of them. It's All There in the Manual and is also an Offscreen Moment of Awesome.
  • Shout-Out: Not surprising, considering the not quite insignificant amount of references to already existing Gundam timelines. Most prominently in the mecha, which include designs (overall and cockpit) and model numbers that reference all the previous Gundam works.
  • Southern Belle: Kihel & Lily.
  • Space Whale: There's quite a large number of cetaceans living in the Moonrace's sublunarian canals.
    • Not to mention that Dianna's flagship for returning to Earth after Guin betrays them is named the Whales and has whales painted on it...
  • Spell My Name with an "S": The Kapool is romanized differently than its Universal Century counterpart from Gundam ZZ, where it appeared as the "Capule".
    • Also, is it "Loran" or "Rolan"? When he gives someone an autograph, it is written as "Rolan Cehack," but the pronunciation seems to be very clearly "Loran."
    • There is a Recap Episode (the only one, episode 16) that has Loran (accompanied in voiceover by two cheery kids) explicitly state that the viewers may recognize the Borjanon as a Zaku II.
    • Most of the human characters have this problem. Seriously... Loran/Rolan, Lineford/Rhineford, Corin/Colin, etc. Meshy/Meshie/Miashi probably gets the worst of it, and let's not even get started on her last name...
  • Stock Footage: Completely and utterly absent. This is surprising for a Gundam series.
  • Invisible to Gaydar: Guin Lineford, the first (and so far, only) character officially outta the closet in the franchise. Then again, he might be bisexual, but his onesided love for Loran is carefully held off until the last few episodes.
  • Superpower Lottery: The Turn-A Gundam is, based on additional details, the most powerful Gundam ever and among the most powerful Humongous Mecha full stop including Super Robots. Its abilities include: its armor granting invulnerability to kinetic weapons, its I-field being capable of shrugging off all forms of energy weapons (as well as being able to block kinetic weapons, which most I-fields cannot), teleportation, its nanomachines being capable of fully regenerating itself and its pilot (though complete regeneration is said to take thousands of years), its beam rifle having the same level of power as UC colony lasers, being able to hack and subvert enemy systems remotely (including giant space stations like Keilas Guilie), the Moonlight Butterfly at full strength covering everything from Earth to Jupiter, using its teleportation ability to refill its chest missile silos directly from Earth (and note that these can include nuclear missiles), able to warp its beam shots wherever it wants including directly into enemy cockpits, among others. And for even more hax, it, like the Turn X, was specifically designed for use by Newtypes. Why these abilities? The Turn-A was designed for interstellar warfare. How's that for Game Breaker?
    • And keep in mind, even discounting the novelization details, the Turn A still has its I-field, teleportation, warping, and regenerating abilities, which are explicitly shown in the series, on top of a Moonlight Butterfly that destroyed Earth civilization completely.
    • This is a common joke on most mecha/Gundam forums. The Turn-A at its theoretical full power has more potent abilities than even the infamous Zeorymer. Only the most Super of Super Robots are unquestionably more powerful, like Gurren-Laganns starting from space-time twisting, city-sized Arc Gurren, casually planet-crushing Getter Emperor or reality-warping RahXephon. Therefore, most Gundam vs Gundam arguments end up solved with "Turn A kills them both." Everything else is basically competing for second place.
      • It could also be argued that since Correct Century is the end of all Gundam, and the Moonlight Butterfly destroyed all civilization on Earth, the Turn A doesn't need to beat all the other Gundams; it already has.
  • Super Prototype: Parodied. Gavan chose his personal Borjanon because it looked different from the other Borjanons that his men excavated. That would be because it's a Zaku I, while the other Borjanons are Zaku II production models.
  • Super Robot Wars: Has appeared in Alpha Gaiden and Super Robot Wars Z/Z2.
  • Sweet Home Alabama: Tomino seems to have based the setting on Gone with the Wind. The fiefdom of Luiziana is the most blatant indicator here.
  • Sword Fight: Loran has one with Gym after they abandon their suits in the final episode. It only lasts for a few clashes before Gym is pulled in by the Moonlight Butterfly and trapped in a cocoon along with the Turn A and Turn X.
  • This Looks Like a Job For Aquaman: It's a damn good thing that Sochie's Kapool was meant for underwater travel, otherwise Loran and Turn A would've had no means of joining up with the others across the sea.
  • Title Scream: Done with a voice that one would swear sounds British or Australian.
  • Tomboy and Girly Girl: The Heim sisters: Sochie is a Tsundereish Action Girl. Kihel is a quiet Ojou.
  • Tsundere: Sochie, Kihel's younger sister.
  • Twin Switch: Dianna and Kihel, despite being not really twins. It actually serves as a major plot point of the series.
  • Undying Loyalty: Harry Ord.
  • Unfortunate Names: Miashei, a mulatto (or something like that) has a surname that most subbers wisely romanize as Kune or Kyunn...
  • The Vamp: Teteth Halleh.
  • War Is Hell: Although it's less pronounced than in other Gundam shows, the After the End setting and Dark History showcase this quite well.
    • The scenes that take place in the military hospital, with heaps of bloodied bandages and a soldier desperately begging the doctor not to amputate his leg, are also an effective illustration.
  • Weak but Skilled: The only explanation as to how the Militia forces, using millenia-old machines, are able to put up more than token resistance against the moonrace. It helps that all those I-Fields do jack squat in deflecting bullets and bazookas, the Militia forces probably have more experience with actual military actions, and they are familiar with Earth's terrain.
  • Wham! Episode: "Sunrise at Midnight." Zenoa, a Moonrace officer, is absolutely horrified to discover a cache of nuclear missiles. And at the end of the episode, we see why when five of them go off at once... oh, and there are two more. The stakes, they have been raised.
  • What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic: A boy, during a festival in which he takes his rites as a man, ends up piloting a machine that will go on to defend all of humanity and make him a hero. Totally not symbolism for a Coming of Age Story. Nope. Not at all.
  • White and Gray Morality: There are very few people who are actually evil. Much of the conflict arises from a lack of understanding between the two sides when they first meet.
  • Wholesome Crossdresser: Loran Cehack, aka "Laura Rolla".
  • Why Am I Ticking?: Prior to safely disposing of the nukes, Loran has to worry about the fact they are stored in the chest region of Turn A and they could go off if he's hit there.
  • Women Are Wiser: The Moonrace seem to believe so. Especially given how the Moon is said to always have been led by a queen.
  • Wrench Wench: Miashei Kun, Merrybell.
  • Writer Revolt: See Wholesome Crossdresser above.
    • Maybe even the whole series as a whole, considering on how different it is to mainstream shows, including other shows in the same genre or even franchise.
  • X Meets Y‎: It's basically Gundam blended in with Gone with the Wind and The War of the Worlds along with a dash of H.P. Lovecraft and Space Runaway Ideon thanks to the civilization-destroying Moonlight Butterfly.
  1. ↑ Actually, it is THE Distant Finale to the meta-series.
  2. ↑ Right Stuff product page
  3. ↑ Wikipedia article, "North American release" section
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